Infinite Sequences

11 and Series

Copyright Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

11.5 Alternating Series

Copyright Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Alternating Series
In this section we learn how to deal with series whose
terms are not necessarily positive. Of particular importance
are alternating series, whose terms alternate in sign.

An alternating series is a series whose terms are

alternately positive and negative. Here are two examples:

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Alternating Series
We see from these examples that the nth term of an
alternating series is of the form

an = (1)n 1bn or an = (1)nbn

where bn is a positive number. (In fact, bn = |an |.)

The following test says that if the terms of an alternating

series decrease toward 0 in absolute value, then the series
converges.

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Alternating Series

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Example 1
The alternating harmonic series

satisfies

(i) bn + 1 < bn because

(ii)

so the series is convergent by the Alternating Series Test.

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Estimating Sums

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Estimating Sums
A partial sum sn of any convergent series can be used as
an approximation to the total sum s, but this is not of much
use unless we can estimate the accuracy of the
approximation. The error involved in using s sn is the
remainder Rn = s sn.

The next theorem says that for series that satisfy the
conditions of the Alternating Series Test, the size of the
error is smaller than bn + 1, which is the absolute value of
the first neglected term.

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Estimating Sums

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Example 4
Find the sum of the series correct to three decimal
places.

Solution:
We first observe that the series is convergent by the
Alternating Series Test because

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Example 4 Solution contd

To get a feel for how many terms we need to use in our

approximation, lets write out the first few terms of the
series:

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Example 4 Solution contd

Notice that

and

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Example 4 Solution contd

By the Alternating Series Estimation Theorem we know that

|s s6 | b7 < 0.0002

This error of less than 0.0002 does not affect the third
decimal place, so we have s 0.368 correct to three
decimal places.

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Estimating Sums
Note:
The rule that the error (in using sn to approximate s) is
smaller than the first neglected term is, in general, valid
only for alternating series that satisfy the conditions of the
Alternating Series Estimation Theorem. The rule does not
apply to other types of series.

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